Russian Drone Strike Kills Mother and Son in Northern Ukraine

A Russian drone attack on a residential home in Ukraine's northern Sumy region early Friday killed a 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son, according to local officials. The regional military administration chief, Oleh Hryhorov, said four others were wounded, including the boy's father and grandmother, who were hospitalized with severe burns.

The strike came a day after the United Nations reported that July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the early weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion. The UN monitoring mission in Kyiv recorded at least 437 civilian deaths and 2,610 injuries last month, as Moscow intensified its bombing campaign against towns and cities.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv, said the number of civilian casualties in July was the highest documented in a single month since March 2022. "Every month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July," she said.

In the eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb struck a 10-story apartment block, destroying six floors and killing one person while wounding 16 others, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He added that Russia is launching around 220 glide bombs daily against settlements near the front line.

Overnight, Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions, wounding dozens of people. In response, Ukrainian forces continued their long-range strikes on Russian infrastructure, targeting the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region and causing a brief fire. The port, a major oil and gas export terminal, has been a frequent target this summer as Kyiv seeks to undermine Russian revenue.

Ukraine also struck a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, in the Tver region. The acting governor said a wall was damaged, though the company reported only "insignificant damage."

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 regions and occupied Crimea. Separately, NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace early Friday, which authorities said had crossed the border "as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare."